HOW EFFECTIVE IS INQUIRY LEARNING FOR STUDENTS WITH MILD DISABILITIES

This investigation was intended to determine whether students with lea rning disabilities (LD) and mild mental retardation (MR) differed from normally achieving students with respect to inductive thinking on an inquiry learning task involving pendulum motion. Twenty normally achie ving students, 18 students with LD, and 16 students with MR were provi ded individually with guided coaching, in a prespecified sequence of s teps, intended to promote induction of the association between pendulu m length and pendulum motion. After the initial guided activity, 75% o f the normally achieving students and 50% of the students with LD, but none of the students with MR provided the correct induction. Over one fourth of the students with LD, and nearly all of the students with M R, required all of the prescribed coaching levers, including direct ex planation of the rule. Students with LD and MR were less likely to cor rectly answer transfer/application questions. Implications for teachin g are provided.